Silicon Valley startup Skygen AI is launching a personal AI agent it calls a “digital butler.” This is software that can see what you see on your screen and perform tasks on your behalf across your laptop, phone, desktop, and tablet. Skygen is launching an early access program rather than a wide public release. You can currently download the first public version from the company's website and install it on your computer. The goal is to gather real-world feedback before scaling further.
Features and new features
Unlike chatbots, which primarily generate text or answer questions, Skygen says agents perform tasks such as composing and sending messages, organizing calendars, booking travel, managing files, and continuing to work when switching devices. The company describes a hybrid architecture where some processing is done in the cloud and some locally on the user's device to reduce latency and enhance privacy.
A rapidly changing market
The product comes as mainstream technology platforms move beyond traditional voice assistants to generative, cross-app agents. Apple's “Apple Intelligence” initiative combines on-device processing with a system called Private Cloud Compute, promising that devices only communicate with servers running publicly logged code. It's a privacy-first framework for consumer AI features across iPhone, iPad, and Mac.
Meanwhile, Google is moving users from Google Assistant to Gemini on their phones, wearables, and increasingly in the home, reflecting a shift away from scripted skills to generative models that can summarize, plan, and interact more fluidly.
On the demand side, analysts at Grand View Research estimate the intelligent virtual assistant market to be approximately $3.1 billion in 2023 and forecast it to reach nearly $14.1 billion by 2030 (CAGR of approximately 24%). While the broader tally of “AI assistants” varies by definition, industry researchers project the category to be worth around $16.3 billion in 2024, rising even more in 2025.
Consumer adoption is also on the rise. A June 2025 analysis by Menlo Ventures estimates that more than half of U.S. adults have used AI in the past six months, and the number of global users is approaching 1.8 billion. Another Pew Research poll conducted this fall found that about 1 in 5 U.S. workers now use AI in their jobs, an increase from last year and a steady rise beyond early adopters.
Why soft launch?
Semi-open access has become commonplace for agents who want to touch or perform actions on personal data. By hand-picking early users, companies can strengthen safety rails, adjust autonomy levels, and refine error recovery before widespread release. This is important because unless controls are clear, “on behalf” agents can make false clicks, false sends, or over-automate.
Regulators are also paying attention. The Federal Trade Commission is warning and taking action against companies that make false claims about AI and requiring them to uphold privacy and confidentiality promises, suggesting personal assistant vendors will face increased scrutiny over what data is collected, where it is processed and consent mechanisms.
Questions consumers should ask
- Visibility and control: Can I review and approve actions before they occur? Can I set limits on a per-app or per-contact basis?
- Privacy boundaries: What runs locally and what runs in the cloud? Are session recordings saved? How long can they be deleted? (Apple's recent approach highlights how privacy is becoming a competitive feature in consumer AI.)
- Reliability and responsibility: How does the agent recover from mistakes (e.g. sending the wrong email)? What audit trail exists?
- Ecosystem suitability: As platform assistants (such as Gemini) evolve, will they work consistently across iOS, Android, Windows, and macOS?
big picture
For a decade, consumer assistants primarily meant voice interfaces on phones and speakers. Its installed base is huge. Industry estimates predict that billions of voice assistant devices will be in use around the world by the mid-2020s, but their scope of use is often narrow (timers, weather forecasts, music). The next wave is task-aware agents that interact with apps and services on behalf of users. If a system like Skygen can perform reliably and provide reliable privacy protection, it could transform the assistant from a novelty to a necessity.
Spencer Hulse is Grit Daily's editorial director. He is responsible for supervising other editors and writers, day-to-day operations, and reporting on breaking news.
